Prince-Bishopric of Constance | ||||||||||
Hochstift Konstanz | ||||||||||
State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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The Bishopric of Constance lying astride the western end of Lake Constance
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Capital |
Konstanz Meersburg (from 1527) |
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Languages | Low Alemannic | |||||||||
Government | Elective monarchy | |||||||||
Historical era |
Middle Ages Early modern period |
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• | Missionary diocese established | 585 | ||||||||
• | Prince-Bishopric | 1155 | ||||||||
• | Council of Constance | 1414–18 | ||||||||
• | Joined Swabian Circle | 1500 | ||||||||
• | Mediatised to Baden | 1803 | ||||||||
• | Diocese dissolved | 1821 | ||||||||
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The Bishopric of Constance, or Prince-Bishopric of Constance, (German: Hochstift Konstanz, Fürstbistum Konstanz) was a Prince-Bishopric and Imperial Estate of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid–12th century until its secularisation in 1802–1803. The much larger Roman Catholic Diocese of Konstanz existed from about 585 until its dissolution in 1821. It belonged to the ecclesiastical province of Mainz since 780/782.
The immediate territory of the Prince-Bishopric was scattered on both sides of western Lake Constance, stretching from the Höri peninsula and the High Rhine in the west along Untersee with the Monastic Island of Reichenau, the Bodanrück peninsula, and Lake Überlingen to the Linzgau region in the northeast. They did not include the Imperial City of Constance nor Petershausen Abbey. In the south, the bishop's territory bordered on the Landgraviate of Thurgau which was conquered by the Swiss Confederacy in 1460.